Get technical, billing, and subscription support for Office 365 operated by 21Vianet

Note: All of the support options below are for Office 365 operated by 21Vianet in China. For all support for worldwide versions of Office 365, see Office 365 support.

With every subscription of Office 365 operated by 21Vianet, 21Vianet support provides technical, pre-sales, billing and subscription support. Support is available both online through the Office 365 operated by 21Vianet portal, and by telephone for both paid and trial subscriptions.

Authorized administrators can use the Office 365 operated by 21Vianet portal to submit service requests online and access support telephone numbers. For instructions, see Contact support.

The 21Vianet O365 technical support team troubleshoots only those issues that are related to Office 365 operated by 21Vianet. Issues that originate in customer networks fall outside of the Office 365 support boundaries, and in these cases, customers must work with their networking team for assistance.

Pre-sales support

Pre-sales support for Office 365 Operated by 21Vianet provides assistance on subscription features and benefits, plan comparisons, pricing and licensing, and helps to identify the right solution to meet your business needs. In addition, pre-sales support can help you find a Partner, and purchase and sign up for a trial. You can call during local business hours, Monday through Friday. Pre-sales support can be accessed using the same phone number as with technical support. For instructions, see Contact support.

Billing and subscription management support

Assistance for billing and subscription management issues is available online or by telephone during China business hours (Beijing Time), Monday through Friday. Billing and subscription management support can be accessed using the same phone number and online service request process as with technical support. The support telephone number can be found on the Office 365 operated by 21Vianet portal. For instructions, see Contact support.

Here are some examples of billing and subscription management issues:

Signing up for a trial or purchasing a subscription

Converting from a trial subscription to a paid subscription

Understanding the bill

Renewing a subscription

Adding or removing licenses

Canceling a paid subscription

Technical support

Technical support for Office 365 operated by 21Vianet subscriptions provides assistance with basic installation, setup, and general technical usage. Some examples of these issues are listed in the following table.

Notes: You can learn how to contact technical support here: Contact support.

Technical support does not include troubleshooting third-party services or add-ins. Learn about finding answers from other customers in the Community.

Technical support case handling

21Vianet assigns a severity level to a case when it is opened, based on an assessment of the issue type and customer impact. Examples of issue types and severity levels are shown in the following table.

Severity level

Operations and support description

Examples

Sev A (Critical)

One or more services aren’t accessible or are unusable. Production, operations, or deployment deadlines are severely affected, or there will be a severe impact on production or profitability. Multiple users or services are affected.

Widespread problems sending or receiving mail.

SharePoint site down.

All users can’t send instant messages, join or schedule Skype for Business Meetings, or make Skype for Business calls.

Sev B (High)

The service is usable but in an impaired fashion. The situation has moderate business impact and can be dealt with during business hours. A single user, customer, or service is partially affected.

Send button in Outlook is garbled.

Setting is impossible from EAC (Exchange Admin Center) but possible in PowerShell.

Sev C (Non-critical)

The situation has minimal business impact. The issue is important but does not have a significant current service or productivity impact for the customer. A single user is experiencing partial disruption, but an acceptable workaround exists.

How to set user password that never expires.

User can’t delete contact information in Exchange Online.

Technical support initial response times

Initial response time is based on the severity levels described above. 21Vianet customer service team follow up with investigation and customer communication in reasonable rhythm according to severity levels. 21Vianet also expect customer to collaborate at reasonable level accordingly.

Provide solid business impact statement (see the severity A description and examples above);
Allocate resource to ensure continues collaboration with 21Vianet customer support agent for the joint investigation and necessary communication;
Provide accurate contact information and ensure reliable communication throughout the service request lifecycle.

Sev B (High)

Initial Response: 1 business day or less.

Provide accurate contact information and ensure reliable communication throughout the service request lifecycle.

Sev C (Medium)

Initial Response: 3 business day or less.

Provide accurate contact information and ensure reliable communication throughout the service request lifecycle.

1 If the customer cannot provide required resource or make response for collaboration with 21Vianet customer support agent investigation in reasonable time, 21Vianet support team may lower down the severity level of a service request.

2 Severity A is only available to customers who had signed an advanced online service agreement with 21Vianet through a sales account manager. Severity A is available only for technical support. For billing and subscription management support, the highest severity level is B.

Technical support working hours

Severity A: 24*7 continuous service

Severity B/C: 9:00 ~24:00 (Beijing Time) a day, 365 days.

Contact support

Note: Assisted support options are for admins of Office 365 subscribed organizations only. If you use Office 365 but you’re not an admin, you can still get support in the community forums, or by contacting your admin.

Call support.
If you encounter any problem with online request, phone support is available at (86)400-089-0365.

Shared support responsibilities

21Vianet understands that receiving timely technical support from qualified professionals is a key aspect of cloud services. Equally important is the critical role that the customer’s IT department plays in the support of its users.

Administrator roles and responsibilities

People with Office 365 administrator roles are the only ones in the customer’s organization authorized to access the Admin section of the Office 365 Operated by 21Vianet portal and to communicate directly with 21Vianet about Office 365 service requests.

With Office 365 you can designate several types of administrators who serve different functions. This service description uses the generic title administrator to refer to all categories of administrators. For more information about the types of administrator roles, see Assigning admin roles in Office 365 operated by 21Vianet.

The administrator is:

Responsible for service administration and account maintenance.

The primary contact that sets up and supports each service user.

Authorized to submit service requests to 21Vianet.

The administrator's role is to:

Provide user account setup and configuration to allow users access to the services.

Address service availability issues within the customer’s organizational span of control.

Use self-service support resources to resolve support issues.

The administrator is expected to provide initial assistance for the customer’s users. However, if the administrator is unable to resolve issues with the help of self-service support resources, he or she should Contact support.

21Vianet support role

21Vianet's support role is to:

Troubleshoot and provide technical guidance for customer issues and escalations.

Gather and validate information related to specific service requests.

Provide issue coordination and resolution management.

Maintain communication with the administrators to help ensure that issues are addressed on an ongoing basis.